At the ongoing U.N. Climate Change Conference in Warsaw, the news of Typhoon Haiyan claiming more than 10,000 lives became a rather fitting backdrop. The issue of use of clean technology is now a new cause of rift between developed nations and their slightly underprivileged neighbours.

In a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black, at the recent Warsaw talks of the UN Climate Change Conference, the developing nations claimed that they were being pressurized to use cleaner technologies, though the developed nations were neither willing to walk the talk nor were they providing developing nations with such technologies;

At Warsaw, the developing countries, including India, resuscitated the issue of easing the costs of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) on clean technologies, by demanding that a funding mechanism be set up to buy licenses on clean but costly technologies to provide to the poor countries. Furthermore, LMDC countries issued statement stating that, “To begin with, we can use the financial mechanisms under the Convention to fund the IPR costs to ensure that climate-friendly technology is available to developing countries easily. A dedicated window under the Green Climate Fund for technology transfer and IPR issues should be established.” It further stated that the group wanted a chapter on technology development and transfer as an integral part of the 2015 outcome. The EU delegation opposed the move a day later, claiming that it saw the protection of IPRs as essential to dissemination of technologies and not as a barrier.

But, the intervention by developing nations, which form a major part of the United Nations has ensured that mechanism to buy-out IPRs will not get knocked off the decisions taken in Warsaw drawing elements for the 2015 agreement.